Drink the Coffee. Teach the Things.

In class this week, we discussed IEPs and Specific Learning Disabilities. These two topics tie in nicely together, as children who have SLDs receive IEPs to help them achieve success in the classroom. I really like the activities we did in class that simulated some of the different SLDs, such as dyslexia and dysgraphia. This allowed me to step into the shoes of my future students and really feel what it is like to have a brain that works in a different way. I feel like it is so easy for teachers to get frustrated with students with disabilities--even though this frustration is really a lack of empathy. I want to be able to know what my students are feeling, experiencing, and learning, and how I can positively impact their experiences to increase their learning. One other activity that really stood out to me was the Marta Case Study we did in groups. We all read the scenario, and chose a character in the scenario to role play during a mock resolution meeting between Mart...

Being a sophomore in Intro to Special Education class, I feel that I have not planned a lot of lessons compared to other students in the class. I am not enrolled in a methods course, and I do not take any other courses this semester where I need to have a field placement. I have experience planning for tutoring sessions--which I know is not the same, but it still involves planning activities around certain goals and objectives. I know that my future will contain multitudes of lesson plans, but I feel that I do not have a lot of experience, yet (#growthmindset). Listening to the UDL talk that Meg Jones gave on Thursday was a treat! I really enjoyed hearing her personal experiences from her years of teaching. The UDL model opened my eyes to the importance of planning really strong lessons--I never realized that even the verbs used for planning student objectives matters. These small, intentional details are trademarks of UDL and its pedagogical practices. Supporting every studen...

For this post, I wanted to share my opinions regarding the RTI model, but I have very little field experience with this model. Instead, I will comment on an article I found about a survey about the RTI model. But first, here is my very minimal experience with the RTI model: Last semester, I was placed in a first grade classroom for EDU 211. My CT was very open to my questions, and even shared some personal background information with me about the students. She shared that a few of the students in the class were underperforming in reading, and were placed on a tier II support level. Because of this, they were pulled out once a day for reading enrichment with a reading specialist. There were two students, MT and MH, that were on tier III support for reading. My CT shared that these students were also candidates for retainment. These two students had contrasting situations in regards to their parent involvement. MT's parents were completely opposed to any extra support, or servi...

Due to our class discussion surrounding the history of special education, and our person first language assignment, I have been thinking a lot about the evolution of special education. As a future educator, it is important to know and understand what special education looked like, what it looks like right now, and how it might continue to evolve in the future. Here are a few things that I have found to be especially profound this week: 1. Changes in language Within our exploration of the history of special education and the treatment of individuals with disabilities, I have noticed and continued to think about the shift in language. I was first struck by the use of the word "retarded" while watching the WillowBrook video, as that was the only way they referred to the residents. I understand that retarded was the word used to describe disability, but maybe because I have grown up on the notion that retarded was a derogatory term to use, I was a bit taken aback. Re...

During my freshman year, I decided to enroll in a volunteer tutoring service called the It Takes a Village Project. This program provides literacy and math tutoring for local school aged children ranging from kindergarten to high school. There is a strong presence of Spanish speaking families, underserved children, and struggling readers and math learners. I attended the mandatory training, which provided me with basic information on how children learn to read, and what I need to do as the tutor in order to help my tutee the most, including quick diagnostic tips and ideas for activities. The very next Wednesday after the training, I was assigned the sweetest third grade student--we will call her Rosie. Our first session went well! Rosie struggled to blend sounds when reading, which made comprehension difficult for her, as she was focused on reading the word correctly, and not what the words actually meant. After the session, I talked to Rosie's parents about her reading struggle...